Images of History fromThe Romantic Story of the Mayflower Pilgrimsby Albert Christopher Addison, 1911

The Landing of the Pilgrims

High ideals in the conduct of life are what survive, and that is why
the Pilgrim Narrative stands forth in the pages of every history as one
of the great events of all time. Senator Lodge, at the dedication of
the Pilgrim Monument a t Provincetown, August 5th 1910.

Historiography then is value-influenced construction of past reality.
It bears repeating that the values influencing the construction are many
and varied. Some are shared widely by members of society, while others
are restricted to spe cial interest groups. Some are idiosyncratic, but
uncritically become accepted by the lay public . . . . James Deetz,
History and Archaeological Theory, American Antiquity Vol. 53, at
16 (1988).

Senator Lodge's statement appears on the inside cover of Albert Addison's
1911 text, which follows a tradition of building and perpetuating, through
text and images, an American myth of national origins. At the time Addison
wrote this account of a chapter in the history of the "Anglo-Saxon race"
(Romantic Story at ix) organizations promoting the heritage of this
ethnic group were of increasing popularity (see, e.g., Michael Kammen's
Mystic Chords of Memory, at 211-12, 220 (1991)). Such grou ps focused
on celebrating their perception of a stoic and dedicated character of the
"Pilgrims" and "Puritans" of 17th century New England (ibid.).

Addison's text follows strongly in this tradition, providing an account
of the Separatists' religious and social history, from old Boston and Gainsborough
in England, to Holland, and on to the founding of the Plymouth Colony in
the New World.

This type of nostalgic view of the history of the Plymouth Colony contrasted
with another trend in the late 1800s and early 1900s of denouncing the
perceived character of the members of the Plymouth Colony as overly inhibited,
and viewing those persons as having lacked a "joy of living" (ibid.).

The images and illustrations from Addison's text include some that had
not been published previously. One can examine these images as examples
of literary and artistic efforts to build and maintain an origin myth.
These images help create mythical account s to the extent that they present
highly selective perceptions, and they tell a story which differs from
the historical facts of past events and of the persons involved in those
events. The documentary and archaeological record of the members of the
Plym outh Colony instead indicate a varied and multi-faceted population
which suffered far less inhibition than has been attributed to them.

View a table of
the illustrations from Addison's 1911 Romantic Story of the Mayflower
Pilgrims below